I Googled myself, and it was awesome!

I'm in Ohio. Up until this past weekend, if you had asked me what there was in Ohio that was worth mentioning, I would have said the best part about Ohio is that I have a favorite family member here. Outside of that, I pretty much only looked at this State as a pain in the ass. Bad drivers here, see... BUT! I have to admit that there is something else here that is top notch. I know you might be thinking that it's some kinda miracle that I've changed my tune about anything, but it has happened in the past. I can't exactly remember when, but I'm sure it has.

This past weekend I did an event at Ray's Indoor Mountain BIke Park in Cleveland. It was a women's weekend sponsored by my good pals at Dirt Rag Magazine. I'd heard a lot about Ray's, and all of it good. It wasn't a place that I felt the urge to drive to Ohio for though. The guy is onto something there. I told him as much. It's not often that someone comes along in this industry with a ground breaking idea. You can only change the shape of a brake lever so many times, and in the end, it's still a brake lever. What Ray has done is something special. He's taken an old, World War II era parachute factory and turned it into a winter playground for bikes only. No skaters of any sort, just bikes. I have no problems with skaters at all. I only mention it because it's not like this is a skate park where people show up on bikes. This is a bike park. BMX'ers have started coming, but there's no conflict with the mountain bikers. It has to be seen to be believed.

Sue Haywood from the Trek Pro team was there, as was World Champion Jill Kintner and Kathy Pruitt, along with a handful of other pro women. A good time was had by all.

But, no post of mine would be complete without another installment of "Why I Hate People".

SO there I was, practicing my dirt jumping. What's that you say? Dirt Jumping? Oh, did I forget to mention that I learned how to dirt jump at Ray's? Well I did...

Anyhoo...There I was, just waiting at the top of the dirt jumps on this decky platformy thing. It has a waiting area with a painted line to designate it and everything. From this deck, you drop into any one of a number of features at Ray's, all of which loop back around to the same spot. When it's busy there's a lot of people up on that deck going back and forth. Most people have the common sense to back up to the waiting area if they aren't going right away, leaving the deck clear for others, such as myself, to get a good head of steam going into the jumps.

Along comes this gaggle of boys and their adult supervision. These kids were over in another area of the park that I was using to warm up before going to the jumps on the opposite end. They were giving me a headache there too by being in the way, riding the wrong way on the one way system, and not moving out of the way when they were stopped. The man in charge did tell them once to get out of the way as I was trying to break through the 10 year old boy logjam. I was annoyed enough to leave that side of the park early.

Off to the dirt jumps I went, and much to my dismay the pack of pre-pubescents followed. I knew this was going to be trouble. They just camped out on the deck. They would ride a line, then all 5 of them would squat right in the middle of everything. The man was completely oblivious to the dirty looks that everyone else was giving them and the kids. Absolutely zero trail etiquette. Get behind the white line, stoopids! It's right there! It even says 'Standing' to indicate that's where you go if you are doing what you are doing which is standing in the way of everyone else!

I finally couldn't take it anymore and decided I had to go and say something. So, I rode over to them and pointed out the white line and asked if they could get behind it when they aren't riding because people are coming through there pretty fast and we don't want to hit any of them. That last bit is a lie. I *did* want to hit them because they were being rude.

All at once, I got 5 sets of stink eye. I didn't care. They left. The lines were clear. Success. I know I was a hero to everyone else up there. I just know it.

Weather permitting, I'm off to see my parents for a couple of days tomorrow. I'll drop the trailer off there since there's another foot of fresh snow on the ground in New Hampshire, and my next trip is back south anyway. I might even get some riding in.

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I got the following voicemail from Ross last week (not verbatim):

I'm driving and was thinking about the reasons why I like you, so I thought I'd call and tell you what I have on the list so far.

1) I like that we can be in the car together but don't have to talk all the time
2) I like that you wear board shorts.

There was another one, but I can't remember what it was. I'm sure Ross will be along at some point with a sarcy comment to either deny any knowledge of this call, or to remind me what the third one was.

Oh, and I see your two posts in one week Rosstafarian. I see them. Where have you been for weeks before though, eh!? Sa-LACKER.

*Edit: As the lovely Simon pointed out below, the third item on Ross's list was that I like Tourette's guy. I can't believe I forgot that one. If you don't know Tourette's guy, you can find it here. Prepare to laugh.